Transcript
TAANIELA KULA: The team was led by Dr Dan Slayback from NASA. He was a participant in the research cruise training for students from the university. And part of the team was a Tongan participant from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. This cruise was back in October 2018. And the main purpose of the visit to the island was to collect some ground control points using GPS to GPS correct the satellite images to derive a descent elevation model for the island which you see on the internet. And also collect some drone imagery to have some high resolution elevation model of the area and then compare with the satellite images. And also to examine the geology and state of the erosion and collect some rock samples and also look for palagonites on the island. We also wanted to look at the vegetation types in the area and also collect some data as well.
JENNY MEYER: I understand that even though the island, you know its only four years since the eruption, there are signs of life there, a little bit of vegetation and some bird life?
TK: So they found most of the vegetation on the leeward side of the island which is on the eastern side of the island closer to the pre-existing Hunga Ha'apai Island. There are some speculation on the source of this vegetation. Either from growing from the island or from the birds waste dumping on the sides. Because the island is full of a variety of birds, sea birds, and they nest in the area and they produce more birds around the crater and also they reside in the gullys of the volcano.
JM: What are the team's thoughts now about the future of the island? I think originally they thought it might erode in only a few months but now it's expected to have a longer life, is that right?
TK: Yeah so the estimated time life was initially from the previous island that has erupted and emerged and eroded away, was up to six months maximum. And some estimation on the formation of the island a couple of months after the initial eruptions they estimated a life time of six years. But from the studies that NASA have undertaken in monitoring for the past four years, the island has been stable in its form since 2016. So they're estimating the life time now to 26 to 30 years to exist above sea level. So that's the estimation now based on the form and the rate of erosion and rate of deposition in the area.
JM: Are the team planning more trips in the future to go back and see what happens?
TK: So those are the plans of NASA. But at the moment we are trying to find time, the Ministry, the government, the Natural Resources and Geology Office as well as the Environment Department. We have more interest now in the life on the island, maybe do some habitat mapping throughout the island and see and report to government on the status. And also the findings and analysis done by NASA so far is very impressive and very fruitful it's a lot of information so we can look at to see what else we can benefit from observing the island at this stage.
JM: It must be pretty exciting to have one of the newest island's in the world there in Tonga, how are people feeling about it and is it going to receive an offiical name? I think there's some confusion over what to call the island?
TK: So at this point we are so thankful to the NASA report by Dr Dan Slayback. We are excited at this point to look at the island. So we'll have to do a site survey and a visit by the Department as I mentioned earlier and then after that visit we'll submit a report to the Cabinet and maybe to His Majesty for consideration of names and such and any other activities we can formalise after the visit. But it will have to be co-teaming with the other relevant agencies in government maybe Tourism Department, to conduct the assessment and see the environmental aspects, maybe the tourism aspects but we have to conduct the visit first and see what we can do. But yeah it's exciting to see all the analysis done by NASA.
JM: When do you think that government trip will happen?
TK: We're very busy at this moment of time and the budgetting and other matters but maybe in the next few months and the weather condition, maybe after cyclone season, after, that's after April.
